Civilizing the public participation practice in post-transition countries

Abstract

The phenomenon of public participation is not so new to both planning theory and practice. In fact, involving local community in the decision-making process regarding the local urban development directions is widely discussed and a number of various forms of these are being introduced. Some of the innovative initiatives associated with this were also promoted by ISOCARP (as i.e. the WikiCity initiative of the City of Amsterdam – 2008). Moreover, developing various forms of public participation in this matter has become a standard planning practice in many countries and communities. It takes different roles and – depending on the level of development of the public discourse on the development issues as well as on the specifics of local democratic control mechanisms – may be regarded as just an addition to the regular planning procedures or as some sort of substitute to them. In the case of so-called post-transition countries (which include post-socialist states as well as countries facing just economic transformation), the demand for public participation is extensively and rapidly growing. It has to be noted that just a few years ago involving the local community into the urban development decision-making process was regarded as a kind of novelty and rarely treated seriously. But along with the development of the democratic societies, understanding by the people that their opinion matters as well as with the growing mistrust to the local planning and municipal management elites completely changed the situation. The local communities started not only to verify the development and planning decisions but also to demand more participation in this process. In many cases, this has led to the situation that no planning or development decision could be made without a public consent, which – in realities of diversified opinions and interests represented by different groups of stakeholders – had led towards stopping any development and not making any decisions at all. This means that the development of the civil society – in realities of the lack of political and democratic culture – led to the paralysis of the decision-making process, which especially relates to the most disputable projects and plans. Of course, this issue has not been left unnoted by both central governments and by the local municipalities. Also, various groups of local activists have understood that negation of any plans and decisions made (especially) by local governments is not a solution and can lead towards stagnation. Therefore, various programs and initiatives leading towards making the public participation part of the “civilized” planning and the development of decision-making process were introduced. One can mention here a number of different forms and initiatives of different magnitude, which are currently changing the decision-making procedures. Within the paper, special attention will be given to the Polish case, which is one of the most interesting due to the diversity of forms of public participation introduced, an array of practices tried and tested, and – finally – due to making this a part of the formal urban regeneration planning process. Therefore, the results discussed and presented shall allow discussion of the possible inclusion of the Polish experience in the planning practice of other countries and regions, with a special focus on countries in transition.